Woven-wire fabric.



N5. 655,253. Patented Aug. 7, |900.

s. c. LocKLlN a B. M. Fox.

WOVEN WIRE FABRIC.

(Application Bled Aug. 14, 1899.)

(No Model.)

me Norms Erma co. Puomumo.. wAsHlNamN. n4 L:A

UNITED STAT-Es f PATENT FFICE.

GEORGE C. LOCKLIN AND BONHAM M. FOX, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

woven-WIRE FABRIC.

SPECIFICATION fermingpart of Letters Patent No'. eaasadated August 7, 1900.

n Application tied iugm I4, 1899.

T0 1f/ZZ whom, it Ina/y concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE C. LocxLIN and Boni-IAM M. Fox, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Woven- Wire Fabrics,of which the following is a specication.

This invention relates to improvements in Woven-wire fabrics intended, primarily, to form springs for bed-bottoms, which fabrics have heretofore been necessarily handled by experts before the same are stretched upon and fastened to the frame, because of the extreme difficulty in preventing the fabric from unravelin g. The fabric is made up of a series of parallel coils of wire interlaced with'one another, part of the coils being generally formed of a number of wires and other and intermediate coils being formed of single wires; but all of the wires in the course of manufacture of the fabric are spirally Wound. Hence when the ends of the wires forming the various strands are not properly held before being attached to a frame they not only spring longitudinally out of their rela-A tive positions in the fabric, so as to cause the separation and entanglement thereof, but by reason of their spiral windingthey all bend and twist laterally in all directions, sometimes causing disintegration of the fabric. For these reasons not only are experts necessarily employed in handling4 the fabric, but when the fabric is put upon the market it is necessarily rigidly secured to the frames upon which it is to be permanently used generally by having the ends thereof fastened between the frame proper and a strip nailed along the edges of the frame or along thetop side thereof. Hence there is considerable unnecessary expense in shipping thefabric when so stretched, due to the weight of the frame and the greater space occupied by the fabric when stretched upon the frame, which greatly increases the cost of transportation of the bed-springs, While at the Sametime requiring them to be permanently. attached to a frame by the manufacturer of a spring. Furthermore, the present method of securing the springs to the frame by clamping the ends thereof with strips or batten of Wood or metal is expensive and requires either the securing Serial No. '727,162 (No model.)

of the strips orbatten upon the upper surface or edge or in a rabbet made in the end rail of the frame. Furthermore, this method produces a fabric which varies materially in its tautness or elasticityat different points, which causes it to sag and become exceedingly uncomfortable after very short use, besides affording a hiding-place for bedbugs and ver- 6o min.

The primary object of our invention is to overcome and avoid all of these difdculties by providing a woven-wire fabric that can be handled by unskilled labor, that may be attached to any frame or support Whenever and wherever desired, that may be safely transported unattached to any frame and at a much less cost than heretofore, and in which the ends of the strands are permanently secured 7o as against the possibility of unraveling,while the least possible hiding-place for vermin is afforded. These and such other objects as may hereinafter appear are attained by the devices illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in Which Figure l represents a plan view of a portion of a woven-Wire fabric embodying our invention. Fig. 2 is an end elevation thereof. Fig.

'3` is an enlarged sectional view of the saine, 8o

and Fig. 4 is a detailed transverse section on the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Similar letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of the draw- Ings.

Referring now by letter to the accompanying drawings, A indicates the woven-wire fabric, which may be formed in any of the Well-known and commonly-practiced methods or in any other desired Way, as the for- 9o mation `ofthe fabric proper forms no part of 'ourpresent invention. As shown in the drawings, the fabric is composed of a series of parallel strands B, composed of a number of coiled wires spaced a slight distance-apart 9 5 and connected by a pair of sin gle-Wire strands interposed therebetween, which'single wires are interlaced with each other and with the strands B in the course of manufacture of the fabric, the single-wire strands being formed Ioo in coils of a diameter substantially equal to that of the plural-wire strands, so that the Whole forms a fabric of substantially-uniform thickness. -When the fabric is formed to the 'may be coiled.

desiredlength,the ends of the coilsarepressed flat upon each other and inserted `in the U' shaped metal strip C, as shown at the righthand side of Fig. 3, so that the ends of all the coils are secured and cannot become displaced. The .U-shaped metal strip is then1 bent "transversely upon itself, as illustrated i at theleft-hand side of Fig. 3, and the whole subjected to powerfulcompression, so thatfy the strip,with the ends of the strands inserted therein, will remain permanently in the form shown at the left Vin Fig. 3. The length of; the metallic strips C will of course correspend substantially with the width of the fabric, so as to properly, rigidly, and permanently secure the ends of the strands as against unraveling. `After the fabric has the binding-strip secured tothe end there'ofand foldeditjis incondition for shipment without,

being'att-ached to a frame and will of course occupy the minimum space or, if desired,

In this form the fabric may be-shipped to the manufacturer of bed-bot, toms and he may apply it to any frame fde'- sired by .simply nailing `it through 'the lbinding-.strips onto 'theiframe, or where lain-etal frameiis `use/d it may be riveted or otherwise secured thereto. The expense of 'attaching such a fabric 'Ito the `frame is. therefore 'reduced to the minimum, and it can be leasily donewithout the employment of expert labor and 'without vrequiring any special lcon-` struction o'f .the endrails or theemploymenlt of .any cleat or battenor :similar device. fObviousl'ythefabric so formed lis equally adapt ed .for use 2in .bed-springs,in spring-cats, 'and in ,fany other article of furniture where .such a `fabric can be employed, and the sheets l"of the fabric can be constructed-specially 'of -almostiany desired shape or dimensions-bythe manufacturer of the fabric for subsequent;

attachment to the various 'articles of furniture `by the 'manufacturer `of the furniture, the mode of securingit to .the article `of .furf niture being left to the selection vof the-user. The attened ends of the 'coils inserted between th'e folds of the binding-strip practi--jf cally fill the entire space between the folds v ofthe strip and afford vthe least possible op, portunityfor the hiding or abode o'f vermin, and extensive practical 'use of the invention has demonstrated that a fabric so constructed is practically vermin-proof.

The bindi'ngJstrip in our fabric has a vthreefold function to perform-that of fastening orfsecuri'ng the ends of the coils fas .against A such ends in Vsuch away as to Vwithstand *the* great pressure towhich 'a 'woven-'wire fabric l is subjected .in `:use as a bed-spring, and 'that of AaEordin-g fa means of firmly and securely;` fastening th'e Afabric toa bed-frame. Such" fabrics when .used for bed-.spring's'are at tachedat their ends only to the .bed-iframe and are generally unsupported at intermediate points, for which reason in the manufacture of such fabrics it is necessary to make the coils of such strength that they will withstand an endwise or stretching strain 'of from eight hundred to one thousand pounds, in

'order'tocnable them to'withstand the lateral Vstrain to which they are subjected in use without sagging, and as sole reliance must be 4placed upon the mean-s whereby the ends of the fabric are secured to the frame to pre-l A the coils, but also so strong and secure fas to prevent the ends of the coils from being pulled out in use. Our fabric as an article of manufacture combines all of these-advantageous qualities lin 'the maximuml degree.l

V`We are aware that wire-netting for window-screens and like purposes has been bound upon its-edge, `,but not 'for the purposeof preventing the unraveling thereof, vbecause the wires of the netting fare notcoiled `"and have no tendency 'to unravel because of the m-anner `in Awhich the wires are meshed. Neither `are they bou-nd for the purposeof our invention, for the bindinfgof `the'wire-netting is intended simply to Vafford a :more secure and betterifrnish to modesof attaching the netting Ato alf-rame, for `the netting in transportation is Vinvariably put up in rolls which .is convenient and possible with awire-n'etting, but

.Wouldbe impossible with a-coiled woven-wire fabric, such-las vthat contemplated by onrinvention. Suchprior devicesy are therefore not the same as our invention, nare not intended for the same purpose, d'0 not produce the same results, and are hereby disclailn'ed. Having thus fully described our invention,

what we claim, 'and desire to Vsecure by Letters Patent, isy .Asa new article of manufacture, avv-oven- GEORGE C. 'LOOKLIN .B'ONHAM M. FOX.

Witnesses:

C. L. Woon, G.. Y. DANKWARD.

TOO

IIO

'wire fabric comprising woven coiled #wire springs having 'the ends thereof V'flattened 'to Ia common 'plane and bound by la metallic strip folded longitudinally so as to inclose fthe' fl'attenedfends of the coiled strands of the fabric and then folded again 4upon itself, sub- `Istanltialflylas described,

unraveling or spreading, that 'of secu-ringj l 

